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Ive got some neutral im wanting to macerate with peaches. Been searching for an answer for a week now and couldn't find it so I figured id ask and get pointed in the right direction hopefully.

What comes first? Aging or Macerating? or does it not matter?

How long do you usually Macerate? Im reading anywhere from 5 days to several months. Im wanting to get some fruit flavor carried over but I don't want to ruin the product. Also does macerating effect the shelf life of the product at all? It seems to me if you strain the product good afterwards and get all the small pieces of pulp you should be fine.

I like mine at least a month or 3 but longer is what I like. I am not you. Throw it in there and let it rip. Part the fun is experimenting with it. You will find the spot you will like. Ok better do 1/2 gal if you are gonna sample every week.. I recommend sampling. I usually strain mine and eat the fruit. It gets cloudy. I put it in the freezer after I get the sweet spot and let the solids settle and pour out the clear for company and drink the solids before company comes. Color is beautiful.

Halfbaked wrote:I like mine at least a month or 3 but longer is what I like. I am not you. Throw it in there and let it rip. Part the fun is experimenting with it. You will find the spot you will like. Ok better do 1/2 gal if you are gonna sample every week.. I recommend sampling. I usually strain mine and eat the fruit. It gets cloudy. I put it in the freezer after I get the sweet spot and let the solids settle and pour out the clear for company and drink the solids before company comes. Color is beautiful.

Sounds good, I will play around with it and see what works the best for me. Do you usually oak after macerating or do those 2 not go together? I cant seem to find any information on that. I was mistaking when I thought I had extra fruit in the freezer. Looks like I will have to use canned peaches to macerate with because our peaches wont be until next summer.

Tito,

I haven't tried peaches yet, but I did this with an apple brandy. Put 2/3 of it on wood (toasted applewood, of course) and put the other third on fresh cut apples. Let them macerate for a month and then pulled the liquor off. After which, I put the sugar on the apple remains. Letting them soak and give up their juice for a week or two, and then poured the syrup off. Next, I added another dose of sugar and let the apples continue to give up their juice,again pulling the syrup off.

Now I'm in the blending stage where I combine the wooded brandy with the liquor off the maceration and a touch of the syrup (to taste). Of course, this was with apples but I don't see why it wouldn't work with any other fruit. I followed Tater's blueberry recipe from the T&T forum.

YMMV.
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